Hello hello! I have been busy with travels, visitors and other lovely things lately, but now things are calming down here and I thought it's time I add some more to my HOW TO TRAVEL IN NORWAY ON A BUDGET-"series".
Today I will cover "How to travel inside the country on a budget".
Let's see. People
normally fly into Oslo. From there you could either get a flight to another
city or you could get on a train or a bus.
The
standard prices to travel by train, plane and bus in Norway are steep, but
there are ways to get a good deal and I am going to tell you how.
A train ride is something I will always
prefer over a bus ride. It’s just more comfortable in so many ways. The
added bonus to rail/road travel of course, is that you get to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery
on the way to your destination. The long distance trains from Oslo to Bergen,
Oslo to Trondheim (via Dovre, not Østerdalen) and Trondheim to Bodø are train
rides with stunning views. In fact, Lonely Planet published an article, saying the train ride from Oslo to Bergen might be Europe’s best train journey. And they
also placed the night train in the summer, from Trondheim to Bodø as one of Europe’s 8 best
night trains in another article, as the sun doesn’t set and you get
to enjoy beautiful views all night long. (One recommendation is also to take the train ride of Flåmsbana Railway, more as an attraction than a means of transport, but it's really lovely.)
But in this
post I mainly wanted to focus on the economic aspect, so I’ll just start with an example.
Standard
ticket, Oslo – Bergen, adult, is NOK 815.00.
(A little over €100)
Now, if you book a little ahead you’ll have no problems finding the so called
“minipris” of NOK 249.00 (about €30) Same train,
same seat, same timetable.
The concept
of “minipris” states that you can go
as far as you want for NOK 249.00. Meaning you can get a train from Kristiansand in
the south to Bodø in the north (as far north as the trains go) for 249.00.
The
standard price for this train ride would be NOK 1912.00 (€240), but book it in advance and pay
only NOK 249.00!
Kristiansand
to Bodø is about 1500 km and would take about 24 hours. I am just trying to
make a point here. Trains are expensive, but if you want to travel far, make
sure you get a minipris and enjoy a really good deal.
Another
thing to keep in mind, is that a train ride can save you one night of
accommodation (another thing that increases your travel spendings in Norway). Get the night train (there’s one for every long distance train
line) and sleep on the train. Normally the night trains are old trains, and
that’s also the ones with the most comfortable seats. You have the whole day in
one city, get on the train, and arrive in another city the next morning. Perfect isn’t it?
Buy your
tickets at the web of NSB (Norwegian State Railways).
If
you prefer to hop on a bus, there
are a few options. Again, curvy roads, mountains… I wouldn’t prefer it, but
some people do. You have Nor-WayBussexpress with standard not-so-cheap prices, but then there’s Lavprisexpressen (low price express)
where you can easily find tickets for just NOK 49.00, (€6) for instance from
Oslo to Stavanger. They have comfortable buses with free internet. They don’t
have as many routes as Nor-Way Bussexpress, but you definitely get a better
deal there.
Now, if you
prefer to travel by air, check out Norwegian.no for offers. They often have
campaigns where you can get one way inland flights from NOK 149.00 + - (€18)
If you are
going north, check out Widerøe’s airpass. Widerøe is an airline flying small planes all over Norway, and many in
the north. In the summer, they always have this offer where you can pay a fixed
amount, and then fly as much and often as you want during the time period you
pay for. There are three zones, North of Norway, Mid-Norway or south. You pay
either for 1 or 2 zones, or the whole country. The best value of this offer is in
the northern half of Norway. There are many small airports, and large
distances, so with this offer you can get to see a lot.
When you
get to your destination, you might want to rent
a car, cause that really is the best way to see stuff, both in “fjord-land”
and the north. Again- large distances. Having a car is sort of mandatory if you
want to see the good stuff a little off the main cities (basically all the photos I use in these posts are taken from a place I got to by car). And they are not cheap. But there is an economical option
here too. Rent a Wreck. It isn’t
quite as bad as it sounds, it’s just more “normal” older cars, not so fancy and not
so new, but perfectly OK cars at a much cheaper price.
They
don’t have offices everywhere, but if they have one where you want to go, it
should be worth it to check them out. Here’s a map of their offices in Norway.
I think that should cover the "How to travel inside the country on a budget" fairly well. Please let me know if I have forgotten something, or if you have any questions or comments!
The pictures are beautiful! I am dying to visit Norway! And I prefer trains over buses too!
ReplyDeleteThank you Katrin!!
DeleteHowever, there are varying challenges to you ought to be considered in each of our selling profession.
ReplyDeleteTake it even at a time and there will be improvement.
Also visit my website - pobierowo
Great advice for a place already on my to-see list. Thanks :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you Patty! If you ever go to Norway you have to let me know!
DeleteNorway, on a budget??? Does that actually exist? ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, call it whatever you want ;) But you can certainly do things cheaper than how most tourists do it!
DeleteI have an old friend from Norway, and it sounds like a serene place to visit.
ReplyDeleteI have learned recently that there are about 5 million Norwegian Americans over in the US, about the same amount as Norwegians in Norway! That is a little crazy!
DeleteOH MY GOODNESS!!! These photos make me so excited to see many more of Norway!!!! Miss you! :)
ReplyDeleteYou should go one day, look up your roots and all that ;) And we could roadtrip together!
DeleteGreat tips and beautiful pictures! There is a site called www.norwayonabudget.com which also seems like a great resource for people who want to go there but want to avoid some of the high expenses!
ReplyDelete